"He's my boy."

That's what Ava said about Sanjaya this weekend, while she made me watch his version of "You Really Got Me" at least 50 times. And then this: "I want Sanjaya to come at my house," she said, in toddler diction. "I want him to have dinner with us."

What can I say? She's a pre-tween. And she's proof that the boy has a legitimate fan base, far removed from the snarks at Vote for the Worst. In a conference call with reporters yesterday, Nigel Lythgoe, the executive producer of "American Idol," was asked about the influence of VFTW, and brushed it off. "It's a bit like a fly buzzing around a cow, you know," he said. "Can't you understand why little girls vote for Sanjaya? I can."

I especially like that "Idol" is the cow in this scenario, though of course, it's more like the 800-pound gorilla. I've been particularly struck, over the past week or so, by how much the other networks have succumbed to its power. "Idol" talk doesn't just show up on "SNL," or E's "The Soup," or VH1's "Best Week Ever." Last week, NBC's Meredith Vieira had a "get" of Ashley the Crying Girl. And the March 12 episode of CBS's "The New Adventures of Old Christine" had an entire "Idol"-watching subplot, which included the funniest DVR joke I've ever heard (if that is, indeed, a category of joke.) Someone tried to tear Christine away from "Idol," telling her she could TiVo the episode. "We're watching it live, like animals!" she said. Brilliant.